Name: Tornado in Louisiana, April 24, 2003
Start: 2003-04-24T15:00
End: 2003-04-24T15:25
Location: Louisiana

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $50,000
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS New Orleans, LA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Apr 24, 3:00 PM CST, 0 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Apr 24, 3:00 PM CST, 0 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS/BATON ROUGE LA
400 PM CDT THU APR 24 2003

UPDATED TO LOWER POPS FOR TONIGHT AND FRIDAY. SHORT WAVE ENERGY
MOVING FASTER THRU AREA THAN EXPECTED. AVN QPF GRIDS LOOK GOOD WITH
BEST CHANCE OF RAIN NORTH OF THE LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN AND OVER THE
COASTAL WATERS.

.NEW...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY...COASTL ZONES KPQL TO INTRACOASTAL CITY
       OUT 60 NM INCLUDING LAKES PONTCHARTRAIN AND MAUREPAS.
LA...NONE.
MS...NONE.

Hazardous weather outlook, Apr 24, 9:00 AM CST, 6 hours before

LAZ034>040-046>050-056>070-MSZ068>071-077-080>082-251100-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA
1000 AM CDT THU APR 24 2003

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA AND
EXTREME SOUTHWEST AND COASTAL MISSISSIPPI.

.DAY ONE...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT

SCATTERED TO NUMEROUS THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED THIS AFTERNOON AND
TONIGHT AS A STRONG UPPER LEVEL SYSTEM AFFECTS THE AREA. THERE IS A
SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS THIS AFTERNOON AND THIS EVENING.
THE MAIN HAZARD FROM SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE DAMAGING WINDS AND
LARGE HAIL...AN ISOLATED TORNADO IS ALSO POSSIBLE. THE MOST LIKELY
AREAS TO SEE THIS ACTIVITY WILL BE FROM LAKES MAUREPAS TO
PONTCHARTRAIN NORTHWARD OR NORTH OF INTERSTATE 10.

MARINE...
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORIES ARE IN EFFECT FOR ALL COASTAL WATERS
INCLUDING LAKES MAUREPAS AND PONTCHARTRAIN FOR WINDS 20 TO 25 KNOTS.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY

NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED THROUGH WEDNESDAY.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

ACTIVATION OF STORM SPOTTERS...HAM RADIO OPERATORS AND EMERGENCY
MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL...IN SUPPORT OF SEVERE WEATHER OPERATIONS...MAY
BE REQUIRED THIS AFTERNOON.

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Washington

When: April 24, 3:00 PM CST to 3:25 PM CST
Where: Washington County, 8 mi W of Bogalusa
Rating: F1
Path length: 14 mi
Path width: 30 yd
Property damage: $50,000
Reported by: NWS STORM SURVEY
Coordinates: 30.767, -89.983

A weak tornado moved northeast along an intermittent path across eastern Washington Parish from near Enon to the Louisiana and Mississippi border southeast of Varnado. Most of the damage was to trees. On Dummyline Road, northeast of Enon, several homes sustained roof damage.

What these are

Tornado: A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Louisiana in 2003 Every state in 2003 This day in weather history The tornado archive for Louisiana, 2003 Warnings in Louisiana, April 2003

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5350196.